Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Banker Nicholas Bertha says his
favorite investment is one he made with his heart, not his head:
a $200 share of the Green Bay Packers.

Bertha, a Wisconsin native who is managing director of
Greenwich, Connecticut-based Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust,
bought the share of his home-state football team in 1997 and
says he cherishes this exception to the Wall Street rule of
thinking before buying. The Green Bay Packers Inc. stock
certificate sits on the desk in Bertha’s office under a lamp
that he doesn’t turn off. The stock will never appreciate in
value and cannot be sold.

“This was a heart buy,” Bertha said in a telephone
interview. “It’s by far my favorite security. It has great
intangible value.”

The Packers will try to prevent the Pittsburgh Steelers
from winning a National Football League-record seventh Super
Bowl when they play on Feb. 6 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington,
Texas. The Packers, who have about 112,000 shareholders owning
about 4.75 million shares, are three-point favorites with Las
Vegas bookmakers to win their fourth Super Bowl and record 13th
NFL championship.

Bertha, 60, grew up in Milwaukee, 110 miles (177
kilometers) south of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and remembers
watching at home with his father when quarterback Bart Starr won
the 1967 NFL championship game against the Dallas Cowboys with a
1-yard touchdown run.

In 1986, Bertha moved to New York, where he spent 20 years
with Wall Street firms including Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette;
Salomon Smith Barney; Robertson Stephens; and Credit Suisse
Group AG.

Christmas Gifts

Bertha now lives in Manhattan and manages the trust
business at Fieldpoint, which was founded in 2008. When he heard
in November 1997 that the Packers were selling shares, he
purchased five -- one each for him, his wife and his three
children. They were given out as Christmas gifts.

“I call this ownership ‘Father’s Day Stock,’ meaning you’d
be happy to buy a share for your dad, as a novelty with
sentimental value,” David Carter, executive director of the
Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern
California, said in a telephone interview.

The Packers have sold shares four times in their 91-year
history. The first was in 1923, when 1,000 fans bought shares at
$5 apiece. The last sale, where Bertha was a buyer, raised $24
million to renovate Lambeau Field. It is the only publicly held
NFL team.

No Resale

The stock is illiquid and pays no dividend. No one is
allowed to own more than 200,000 shares and resale is
prohibited, except to the club at a fraction of the original
value.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Green Bay’s population
is 100,971, the smallest of any NFL city. Carter said the team’s
ownership structure and the league’s revenue-sharing system are
the main reasons a city as small as Green Bay has been able to
retain a franchise in the NFL. In 1961 the NFL decided to pool
television revenue and distribute it evenly among the teams.

“But for the NFL’s revenue-sharing model, teams would not
be existing in Green Bay, which has a weak corporate base and
very small media market,” said Carter, 46.

Bertha likes to think his purchase helped as well.

“The team will never move, because it’s owned by the guy
who runs the barber shop in Green Bay, the guy who runs the bar
in Milwaukee, and me and my family.” Bertha said. “We would
never in a million years let the Packers leave Green Bay.”

College Atmosphere

Packers safety Charlie Peprah said playing in Green Bay
reminds him of being back at the University of Alabama, because
of the small-town feel and fan devotion.

“I don’t know how ownership has impacted us as players as
far as management, but we’re in the Super Bowl so I guess it’s a
positive,” Peprah, 27, said on Feb. 1.

Because of its ownership structure, Green Bay is the only
NFL team to reveal annual financial results. Since public
ownership is otherwise banned under NFL rules, it is the only
peek into league finances.

“One of the biggest advantages the league has is the
ability to keep the majority of their finances private,” Carter
said. “That gives them an upper hand when it comes to
collective bargaining and labor negotiations.”

Since 2007, operating profit at Green Bay has declined 71
percent, to $9.8 million from $34.2 million, according to the
team’s yearly financial reports. In that same period, revenue
increased 18 percent, to $258 million from $218 million. The
current contract with players was signed in 2006.

Revenue Record

Net income for the 12 months through March rose 30 percent
to $5.2 million, while operating profit more than halved to $9.8
million from $20.1 million on a $58 million increase in player
costs to $161 million.

The collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and its
players’ union runs out March 3. Packers Chief Executive Officer
Mark Murphy said on a conference call in July that player costs
have prompted owners in the U.S.’s most-watched television sport
to seek a new labor deal.

Among the perks for Packers shareholders are invitations to
the annual owners’ meeting in Green Bay, where they can vote for
directors. Stock owners can also purchase exclusive merchandise,
such as “I Own a Piece of the Pack” T-shirts.

“You know you’re not (Dallas Cowboys owner) Jerry Jones,”
Bertha said. “But you are, in fact, a sliver of an owner and
that’s enough for me.”